‘Descended into darkness’: Speaker details sometimes ugly history of free speech

History buffs may be surprised to learn that 79 Montanans were convicted of sedition during World War I.

In an unusual act of forgiveness, on May 3, 2006, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer pardoned 78 of the convicted in a cere-mony attended by 50 of their descendants. Gov. Joseph Dixon had already pardoned one other in the 1920s.

It just surprised the heck out of me that people were sent to prison in Montana on free speech issues, said Clem Work, a retired University of Montana journalismprofessor.

Work, the author of Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, spoke for 15 history hounds at the Butte-Silver Bow Archives on Wednesday. Montana arrested, convicted and imprisoned more people for violating sedition laws in 1918 and 1919 than any other state, he said.

Work calls sedition the illegal promotion of resistance against the government, usually in speech or writing. But the ultimate definition was up to the government.

It had a tremendous impact across this country and on the state of Montana, said Ellen Crain, director of the Archives. She noted that Schweitzers blanket pardons came after Works book was published in 2005. Its an incredibly important book.

To the surprise of many in the audience, Work told stories of ordinary folks like Janet Smith and her husband, William K. Smith, who were probably targeted by authorities in Custer County because they owned enviable livestock and land, Work said. She was demonized by the county prosecutor.

Smith was the only Montana woman convicted and sent to prison for sedition. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Deer Lodge and given a $5,000 fine, and he was sentenced to 20 years and a $20,000 fine. They were forced to forfeit their land to pay the fines.

Varying degrees of dissent clustered in pockets primarily in a few wide-spread counties: Lewis and Clark, Custer County and Fergus County.

Many ordinary citizens were arrested, mostly for speaking out against the United States entry into World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.

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‘Descended into darkness’: Speaker details sometimes ugly history of free speech